Ascent
by Takashi Miike
Summary: An alternate universe based space opera.
1. Shuffle

**A Preface: Please read before continuing.**

So, you've come looking for "Teen Titans" fanfiction. You've found this filed away there, with "Starfire" being the only character listed and little in the way of a description. By now, you've noticed that this file is incredibly short, only 731 words, and I'm certain you're wondering what this is.

Imagine the Teen Titans. The characters you've grown attached to. Now obliterate every notion you have of them. This is the first of three interludes that will reveal pieces of larger story, the first part of which will be posted soon.

_

* * *

_

_I am a stranger to your world_.

_Even still, the locked doors of the House Absolute remain as the symbol of my exile when the stars parted for me_._ Whether it was the result of the vacuum smothering me, or the metal that shut me from my world, the last I heard was the echo of my sister's laughter_.

_Before the armigers could escort me to my transport, and almost certainly to the Great Gates, and perhaps the silent desert itself (in truth I did not know), I turned and bowed as was custom; my feet made no noise_. _As their gloved hands gripped my biceps, I spit_. _It was wet and splattered against the door with a satisfying plop_. _They took me through long halls, and up interminable staircases. We passed beneath uncounted archways, and between columns: colonnades, a portico, and finally, an epistyle. The old court towards the east end of the House_.

_I had not been there since my childhood. My brother, sister, and I used to play here under the supervision of our _galadri'm_. What came next was obvious: a wait. Then I was to board a transport which would ascend on an inertial tether into synchronous orbit. From there I would be docked on a larger skiff. We'd open a rift and I would be on my way to the Alamushi._

_I knew, at that moment, as I sat in the center of yard and admired the efficiency with which nature had degraded my old place, that I would never make that trip, alive or dead. Alive, I would hide or commit ritual suicide. I would not let them have my body. In death, I knew that my pilgrimage would be brief and that I would be reborn with another chance to show my mettle, to sit a throne won by age, not by defect. It will not be an easy road, but it is my choice to make._

_The long hours awaiting my digression from the courtyard were spent in a meditation. I needed to soothe my mind, to cage the part of it that wanted to fight, to rise on the air, buoyed by emotion. To ride the rage a first and only time. I imaged all manner of scenario where I would overpower my captors and flee with my poor brother out into the stars. To Phanda Drifts or Goldstone. Somewhere difficult. Maybe even the Tower on the Cliff. We could hurl ourselves into the Lake of Dead Languages: to see all history in one orgasmic moment before our minds were snuffed from this iteration._

_It was not to be. It might never be. All I could do was spend it waiting. I chose to let my mind separate into its elemental components, repeating the liturgies I had memorized a long time ago._

_From the Water that does not love us, we take our lives_

_From the Sun that does not know us, we take our vision._

_From the Mind that cannot see us, we take our gifts._

_From the Air that cannot hold us, we take our heart_

_From the Heart, we pledge our lives_

_The five make six: they form me. I chose to abandon them, wandering into the cold hard void of space. Across spans so enormous that one could exhaust a thousand life times effort and not cross them. To planets so ancient their crusts had hardened like a coat of armor, bereft of life and love. By stars that glowed with a fierceness that was familiar as a sibling's face. By creatures not even glimpsed in the most gruesome of nightmares in places where a crudity of nature sustains._

_I did not eat or drink or sleep while I saw all these things._

_On the third day, they came for me._


	2. Seventh

This is a work in progress. I'll be posting the finished work when it's completed.

* * *

It was Gar's turn to bathe Koriand'r. He had spent the last ten minutes searching for her, and finally found her in the laundry room with one ear pressed against the washing machine. He knew there was nothing in it; she had it on because she liked the noise. He could hear the agitator humming to itself as it stirred the water. She had her eyes closed and was leaning hard enough against it to dent the metal.

He did the best he could to get as close as possible before she started struggling, but somehow, she always heard him before he was even a few steps into the room.

She was up, hovering in a corner, fists sheathed in that unearthly green light. Her eyes glowed. He raised his hands to show that he meant no harm though he knew the gesture was meaningless to her. She only spoke rudimentary English and human body language was still completely foreign to her.

They weren't even sure "Koriand'r" was her name. When she'd first been brought to them, they tried communicating with her as best they could. It felt awkward. She stood glaring at them. They had pointed at each other and spoken their name. It took several minutes before she grasped the concept and barked _Koriand'r_ at them. Speedy stepped forward and extended a hand. Their new guest tried to bite it.

"You gotta watch this one," Batman had explained, "We're still not sure where she's from or what she wants, but she needs a place to stay and you guys are the only team that has enough free time to watch her."

None of them knew whether or not to take that as an insult, but they understood.

* * *

The first few days had been the most uncomfortable. This strange creature (no matter how human it looked) didn't seem to like them. They decided that she was female based on the fact that her anatomy seemed to resemble that of a human female. Her waist was tapered, curving inward below her full-bosomed chest and swelling back out into larger thighs, well-shaped calves and long slender feet. She stood nearly six inches taller than Jericho who was the tallest of the rest of the team. Her hair was coarse and thick, falling down to her feet in large curls. It fell in unruly locks across her face. Her skin had an unsettling orange hue, and she seemed to have one expression pasted on her face at all times.

After the first few days they had started to worry about her. She wasn't eating, didn't seem to sleep, and didn't respond to any of their attempts to talk with her. So they had put Jericho to the task of getting information from her. It hadn't taken long to get her to make eye contact with him. He vanished and something familiar seemed to suddenly spring into Koriand'r's eyes.

She squared her shoulders and spoke, "_Aradat. Feezin-klin, formi. Aradito. Sécaro muchin varo._" Her voice sounded strained.

His body appeared again; a few seconds after that. Koriand'r recoiled. She shrieked at him as he lay on the ground recuperating from his exertion. From that point on, she had avoided going anywhere near Jericho. No one blamed her.

Had he been able to talk, he wouldn't have had the words to articulate what he had learned from his brief sojourn in that alien mind.

* * *

It had been a few days after that they started to notice the smell.

She had turned the thermostat in the room where she was living all the way up. It was one of the infrequent occasions when she emerged around the Titans that they finally became aware of the odor. It was overpowering: almost rotten; a sickly sweet scent that reminded them of rotting flesh or bad cheese. When she had returned to her room after eating a meal (and leaving the kitchen in disarray), they had exchanged glances and tried to agree on a course of action.

Gar thought they should try and show her the concept of bathing.

Mia wanted to buckle down and just do it.

Kole thought they should take bets to see how long she would go without doing it.

Joseph signed agreement with Kole (even offering to act as a bookie).

Tara just thought the forceful application of several coats of Mitchum deodorant would work.

Lorena would help with whatever they decided.

In the end it was decided that they should endeavor to bathe her however much work was involved. After more discussion, they decided to take turns. Aquagirl would go first.

Lorena decided to use a gentle approach. Like coaxing fish into formation, all it would take was time and patience. At the end of the day, she hadn't succeeded in getting her from her room. The next day she came back with a bucket of warm, soapy water. She watched Koriand'r sleeping for a few moments then tossed the water onto her. She sat up, her eyes blazing that green fire. Aquagirl was out of the room before she could react any further.

From that point on, she avoided her. No one blamed her.

They all decided there must be a better method to this. They would wait until the stench was at its peak before trying again.

* * *

They didn't have to wait long. Given that she slept, lived, and did whatever it was she did in sweltering heat, she was able to add several layers of sweat to her skin each day. It was barely 72 hours before they could smell her without any effort. They decided it was Mia's turn next.

She chose a different tactic: conditioning coupled with surprise. They had all observed that her digestive system functioned in a roughly analogous. She'd been able to discern the use and operation of a toilet. The pieces were set to give her a good and long overdue cleansing.

First she made sure that everyone drew the shower curtains across the tubs when they were done with them. They couldn't be certain which bathroom she would opt to use next as it changed without any warning.

She had rightly been suspicious when she entered the bathroom and saw that the curtain had been closed. She had grunted and pulled it open again, ready for an attack. When nothing came, she grunted again, satisfied there was no threat. She then moved to another bathroom only to find the same thing had been done there. While she was away, Gar had scurried into the bathroom she had vacated and shut the curtain once more. She cycled through the six rooms several times before feeling safe enough to conduct her business.

The second step took more planning. She had to find a way to keep water in the tubs without her either noticing or guessing on its future purpose. She had been able to detect that water's presence by scent it would seem. She had stopped and lifted her head, then yanked the shower curtain so hard that the rings keeping it attached to the bar had snapped and it fluttered down to cover her. She thrashed around in it for a few moments before her temper overwhelmed her judgment and she incinerated it with several bolts from her fists. The examination was repeated at all the other bathrooms (though the shower curtain wouldn't be replaced until later that day when they were sure there would be no disturbance); it was a long time before she felt comfortable enough to relieve herself.

The third and final step went well until its actual execution. Mia had the other Titans monitoring her motions. When she left her room and started for one of the bathrooms, he had to dash inside and hide until she got there. She seemed more intent on other things which worked to his advantage. She had the courtesy to wait until she was done before ambushing her. Mia managed to get one hand on her shoulder before she spun around and punched her hard enough that her head cracked one of the tiles when it collided with the bathroom wall.

She muttered something under her breath and tried to go after her. She only managed a few steps before his vision spun and she passed out.

* * *

From that point onward, Koriand'r avoided that particular bathroom. No one blamed her though it made their task that much more difficult. Given that Joseph would encounter fierce resistance if he dared to penetrate her mind again, that left Kole and Gar to give it a shot. She had a different idea of how to get her to do this. Most importantly she wanted to get it done. It had been nearly two months since Aquagirl had just thrown water on her. As well as that worked, she didn't think that anyone wanted to have to do that on a regular basis; it would be much easier if they could convince this girl to do it on her own.

Thus she would employ a different technique.

Koriand'r had taken to locking, then barricading, herself in the small room that she lived in. She would several deadbolts, then palm a magnetic lock shut. Lucky for them their tower, nestled in its cradle in the mountains, had come equipped with failsafes. If they had to, they deactivate the security grid for her room. And they did just that. Next were the deadbolts. That as another story: they had to dredge up the blueprints for the tower that theirs was based off of. It took several days of searching and in the end they had to consult an expert to show them what they needed to know. There was a hatch set in a hidden alcove near the door that would unlock anything she did or tried to do so long as their home was receiving power.

Kole undid the locks and strode in. She was dressed in a bathing suit and carrying a small tub with a few towels and other miscellaneous toiletries inside. Koriand'r watched in rapt fascination as she set the pool down, left and started returning with gallons of water. She dumped them into the pool, one after another. It was a long task since she could only carry 3 or four gallons at a time and the pool had a one-hundred gallon capacity. The others had told her that this was her task (besides the Titans that would set her off if they tried to come near her). It took longer than she would've thought, but she eventually got the pool filled up.

She stood, ankle deep, in lukewarm water and holding a bar of soap; the shampoo lay outside of it, near the curve closest to her, and there was a washcloth hanging on one shoulder. The water at her feet started pulse, rolling toward her and breaking at her legs before growing more insistent. A column of crystal sprouted from the water, a thin support crowned with a basin roughly a foot in diameter. The excess fluid sloshed out of it as it reached its peak, halting halfway up her abdomen.

This was the most sensitive portion of her scheme. She wished that Lorena had exercised more finesse. This would be easier if both of them were here; Kole could get Koriand'r to the pool while the other girl showed her the water wasn't dangerous. They didn't want Gar there as he was male (though he'd offered his assistance a little to readily). When the water had calmed, she stood still, waiting until the alien decided to come over and investigate this new phenomenon.

She rose from where she had been sitting and strode to the pool, stopping at its edge and peering down at the water and the pedestal that jutted from it. She didn't seem upset by Kole in the least. She'd probably seen stranger than compound eyes on otherwise humanoid beings (however upsetting most other people found that feature when they first met her). She peered into the bowel, tilting her head from side to side, admiring her reflection. She cupped her hands and drew some water into them, and drank it. A second time, sipping loudly.

At last she stepped into the pool; if she was wary of Kole's intentions she didn't show it. There was no way she couldn't know what the other girl wanted. Kole knew that there was a good chance, that regardless of culture or language barriers, soap was soap, and bathing was bathing. Water had to have the same structure, so it was a good bet that she was anticipating something.

"Bath time," she explained, and said it again until it was repeated back to her.

Kole raised an arm and sniffed at her armpit, wrinkling her face quite visibly. Koriand'r giggled: a deep glottal sound. Kole extended a hand, dipping the soap into the water in the basin then spinning it in her hands to work up lather. She rubbed it on her arms then soaked the washcloth and rinsed it from herself. Koriand'r understood.

"Da'gorin. Eska. Aralat ague," her words sounded almost melodic and carried none of the paranoia and hysteria that had been in her voice when Joseph had inhabited her for those few brief seconds. She clasped her hands. The last two fingers laced, the middles were touching, and her index fingers were spread. She brought them to her face for a moment, outstretched thumbs placed on her chin, index fingers covering her eyes. She removed them and held out an expectant hand.

Kole placed the soap in it. She repeated the process to the smallest detail, including washing only her arms. Kole giggled when she was done and had taken the soap back. She let it float in the basin and repeated the ritual that Koriand'r had done a few moments ago.

The girl laughed fully, a much more pleasant sound. One that most humans would recognize and join in if they understood the joke.

Kole didn't understand, but was glad that she hadn't offended her. If the briefing they had received on her abilities was to be believed, then anger was the last emotion they wanted to provoke, intentionally or not.

She retrieved the soap and this time washed her entire body. Koriand'r nodded, but instead of taking the soap back from Kole she stripped to the girl's surprise. Granted she wasn't wearing much anyway, but Kole didn't even know her. She blushed and looked away. Koriand'r laughed again, taking no note of her nakedness, but by cleaning herself thoroughly. When she was done, she replaced the soap in its container.

Kole had been facing the wall for the entire time, but turned around when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She glanced behind her, and blushed again when she saw that the other girl was still naked.

"Igo umim logod. Awé-yaya sko," she felt the girl put her fingers on her face where her nose joined her forehead. She felt her eye brows being traced, and at last, the fingers were met by the thumbs in the center of her cheeks. She heard whispering but couldn't make it out. She felt something strange. Another ritual in as many minutes. This one felt like something special. There was tenderness to the touch, and the words had been spoken in a tone of hushed reverence. She didn't know it, but Koriand'r had just rendered her a friend.

She came back around, but kept her eyes even, concentrating hard on not looking down.

Now it was time to wash her hair.

The crystal started to leak. Water seeped back down into the pool. When all the water had drained from it, it dissolved, drifting into the air in immeasurable tiny fragments. Kole knew from experience that inhaling these particles was harmless, but wasn't sure how Koriand'r would react. She only watched with detached interest; she was more engrossed with Kole.

Almost immediately after her creation had destroyed itself, she was kneeling in the water, soaking her hair, scrubbing at her scalp. She let the loose water drip off her hair before reaching behind and picking up the shampoo. The bottle was uncapped and she squirted a dollop of liquid into her hand. She rubbed the shampoo into her hair with vigor, stopping every so often to make sure that she was being watched. When the process was done, she held the bottle out. Koriand'r took it from her hand and set it in the pool. She bent down and watered her hair. With the added weight, it fell past her feet, the excess floating on the surface of the water.

She applied the shampoo differently, stroking it into her hair as if she were brushing it out of her face. It would take two more handfuls to cover it all. By the time her hair was clean, the water had a white film on it. Kole made a note to herself to take a bath, a _real_ bath, when this ordeal was over.

All that was left to do was dry off. The towels had been placed near the shampoo and she grabbed one and started at her head. When she felt dry enough she picked up another one and handed it to her. Even if she hadn't done that first, its use was obvious enough, though now Kole saw that she should've brought more towels. They only had four and it would take five at the very least to Koriand'r's mane dry.

With that she started on her torso then moved to her legs, saving her feet for her exit from the pool.

Before she could leave, she heard one last thing.

"Kole, szidaan."

She paused near the door and rotated to face her. She repeated the strange physical sigil she'd seen earlier.

Koriand'r smiled a very human smile.

* * *

Before the end arrived, she would christen all but one of them.

* * *

For a while after that, Kole had a shadow much of the time. It seemed Koriand'r was more comfortable outside of her room provided that Kole was there in some capacity. She had a tendency to touch the girl, fumbling for her hand. At first the others found this funny, but they treated it as a more serious issue when it was clear that Kole was bothered by it when she did it in front of everyone else.

The good seemed to outweigh the bad. She was interacting more with everyone now, and as such was starting to pick up some of their habits. Her table manners improved markedly. They no longer had to give her liquid food in a plastic tumbler. She started washing her hands before eating, applied utensils in a primitive manner, and cleaning up after she was done.

She knocked on doors before entering anyone else's room which was a welcome change of sorts. Several of them had been caught in less than ideal circumstances and either she didn't care or didn't understand. Now, everyone had time to prepare. She used her knuckles like she had seen Kole do, and rapped them against the door thrice before awaiting an answer. They learned that she would enter no matter what they told her. Kole always waited for an affirmative, but more importantly, to Koriand'r it looked as if she were waiting only for the first response, so that's what she did.

She learned and assimilated what she could, easing these new actions into her routine. It would take some time for the other six to get used to them. She approached each subject with zeal at first, and when she was certain she'd mastered it, moved on to something else.

It was almost a week after the bath that Kole finally saw her Pattern. If the truth were to be told, she wasn't sure what it was, but there was a dark marking towards the middle of her back, centered on the spinal cleavage, a staining of her orange skin. It was a symbol of some sort, repeated three times: a square with blunted corners with what would've have been a diagonal slash running from the bottom right corner and out the left were it not absent from the rest of the body. A dot was centered inside it.

Koriand'r was in her room again, sitting on the bed and talking to herself as she did when Kole wanted privacy otherwise. She seemed to be compelled to perform all manner of rituals at all times of the day. It took a while, but Kole was starting to recognize the motion of some them. A sweep of the arm, the gradiant of a leg upthrust. Supplication, sublimation, a slow liturgy or genuflection towards the east in the evening and the west during the day.

It was during the first time of one of them that Kole saw it. She was bowing to the corners of the room. She had removed her clothes once more, a habit that the boys didn't seem to mind, but the other girls found awkward and uncomfortable (it appeared her race had no taboos about nudity).

Koriand'r was leaning forward. Her head came near to the floor. Kole watched in morbid fascination. The way the muscles pulled taut across her back. That her legs could support such an impossible position. The light hit her skin just right, and the orange pigment almost seemed to be set aflame. The black was visible. She didn't want to disturb her before it was done, but she was drawn to the symbol. It seemed to have metallic properties. It glinted when she twisted to touch the sides of her head to the ground.


End file.
